Thomas a Kempis Quotes

Simplicity is the intention, purity in the affection; simplicity turns to God, purity unites with and enjoys him.

Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.

Two wings lift a person up from earthly concerns: Simplicity in intention, and Purity in feeling.

Wanting to feel good is synonymous with wanting to feel God.

In a state of grace, the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree.

When all life is seen as divine, everyone grows wings.

He who climbs above the cares of this world, and turns his face to his God, has found the sunny side of life.

To pray is to mount on eagle's wings above the clouds and get into the clear heaven where God dwelleth.

Only in love can I find you, my God. In love the gates of my soul spring open, allowing me to breathe a new air of freedom and forget my own petty self. In love my whole being streams forth out of the rigid confines of narrowness and anxious self-assertion, which make me a prisoner of my own poverty emptiness. In love all the powers of my soul flow out toward you, wanting never more to return, but to lose themselves completely in you, since by your love you are the inmost center of my heart, closer to me than I am to myself.

Faith and hope...are the wings by which our souls, rising above the world, are lifted up to God.

I have sought earnestly and with great diligence that good and high virtue by which man may draw closest to God... and as far as my intelligence would permit, I find that high virtue to be pure disinterest, that is, detachment from creatures. Our Lord said to Martha 'Unum est necessarium', which is to say; to be untroubled and pure, one thing is necessary and that is disinterest.

The way to heaven is within. Shake the wings of love-when love's wings have become strong, there is no need to trouble about a ladder.

The most divine light only shineth on those minds which are purged from all worldly dross and human uncleanliness.

By two wings a man is lifted up from things earthly: by simplicity and purity.

To love what is below the human is degradation; to love what is human for the sake of the human is mediocrity; to love the human for the sake of the Divine is enriching; to love the Divine for its own sake is sanctity.

God Himself - His thoughts, His will, His love, His judgments are men's home. To think His thoughts, to choose His will, to judge His judgments, and thus to know that He is in us, with us, is to be at home. And to pass through the valley of the shadow of death is the way home, but only thus, that as all changes have hitherto led us nearer to this home, the knowledge of God, so this greatest of all outward changes - for it is but an outward change - will surely usher us into a region where there will be fresh possibilities of drawing nigh in heart, soul, and mind to the Father of us all.

Let me love Thee so that the honour, riches, and pleasures of the world may seem unworthy even of hatred - may not even be encumbrances.

We are as near to heaven as we are far from self, and far from the love of a sinful world.

Simplicity reaches out after God; purity discovers and enjoys Him.

Those who think to reach God by running away from the world, when and where do they expect to meet him? We are reaching him here in this very spot, now at this very moment.

The pure soul shall mount on native wings, . . . and cut a path into the heaven of glory.

To-despise the world is the way to enjoy heaven; and blessed are they who delight to converse with God by prayer.

When you know how much God is in love with you then you can only live your life radiating that love.

God can never be realized by one who is not pure of heart.

Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished.